Soviet guns a rollin'.

Finishing some extra armour and fire support for the Soviet army.

1x Su-152 from Zvezda
1x KV-2 from Zvezda
2x T-34/43 from Zvezda
2x 120mm Mortar teams from Battlefront/Flames of War
2x Su-76M from Zvezda
1x KV-1 from Zvezda

Battlegroup Tokens (WW2 gaming aids!)

Adopting a new wargame...I ended up of, as always, designing up some game aids.  I've assembled some cheat sheets and I designed some tokens which will come in handy.

Battlegroup requires a bag of 104 "Battle Counter" tokens, and I added in 30 small status tokens for the most common uses in the game.

I decided to put some together for the most popular factions, namely those that my buddies and I would be playing!

WW2 Tokens: Germany

WW2 Tokens: Soviet Union

WW2 Tokens: United States

I will be doing some more in the future, namely British, and some specialized token sets for friends.  I have already done one; the 4th ID for my buddy who served with them. 

Potato phone pictures of the Russian horde!

While moving stuff around on a shelf, I took these minis out and snapped a few poor photos.  I finished another rifle platoon today and an additional sapper squad and a second 50mm mortar.  I also snapped a pic of my completed infantry, and then my whole current force sitting in its "waiting" tray!

 New recruits arrive from the train depot...

 The assembled collection thus far...

All of my current infantry.

Overall, pretty happy with the results, and happy that I'm at the stage as a wargamer/hobbyist that I can envision something and make it happen with decent results, in a planned and methodical method.  I was able to find a solution to numerous problems and I'm right where I'd like to be with regard to being able to play Battlegroup (minus needing some proper terrain!).

As with all of my projects I always try to do the most boring stuff first.  In this instance...a company of Russian infantry and some assembled officers and support teams.  While I have a bunch of additional infantry left to do at some point (various communications teams, etc.), my bulk infantry are done.  Everything else will now seem like a joy to paint by comparison!

15mm Entrenchments from Flames of War

Starting to assemble/build terrain elements for 15mm, I picked up a box of Entrenchments from Flames of War.

Product as advertised - box of eight pieces, six large and two small - made to fit FoW bases.

 

These were nice, and while I forgot to take pictures, the colours were a bit off - even from the actual cover of that box.  The barrels were a light blue/grey, the wood was all painted dark brown with a minor drybrush and some of the crates were a weird bright orange/red.

 

Regardless, the casts are nice, the details are plenty good for 15mm, and I wasn't hating the price (around $18).  An hour spent re-painting the wood and rocks and barrels...and crates...basically the whole thing and I'm happy.

 

One minor gripe - they're almost laser-perfect fit for FoW bases, meaning you may scrape the paint off the edge of your bases.  A spare 1mm would have been nice (the smaller two have some gaps/room and don't suffer from this).  Overall, and easy 4/5 product!

 

 

The Soviet Storm arises...

Some more progress on my Soviet force for Battlegroup (starting with Kursk).